"CLAMOURING FOR PEACE"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16213, 26 April 1916, Page 8

"CLAMOURING FOR PEACE"

GERMANY FROM WITHIN.

NEUTRAL WRITER'S OPINION.

END OF WAR WITHIN A YEAR.

Is Germany already ruined? To answer this question M. Liakardopulo. a perma< nent contributor of the Petrograd newspaper Retch, has mado a journey through Germany and Austria-Hungary. His revelations have produced a great impression in Russia, and the Foreign Minister himself, M. Sazonoff, has had a long interview with "him. M; Liakardopulo thus summarises his experiences in the last of his series of articles in the Retch. He says:— " I have returned ally convinced that Germany will be beaten. In the first instance there is in both countries at war with us a real and not merely apparent economical exhaustion.

The hope of getting necessary produce from the East has not been realised, for the East, from Bulgaria and Constantinople to the territory in the rear of the Turkish armies, is in consequence of the deficiency of communications by road and sea in a v worse position than even Germany. I have talked in Bucharest on my way back to Russia with many persons just returned from Constantinople and Asia Minor. I had an opportunity of reading letters from such places as Trebizond, on which the Germans put all their hopes. The people are actually starving there. The proposed offensive against Egypt is nothing but German bluff. "The iron ring of the British blockade, which is closing in with increasing force, makes ono absolutely confident that Germany will not bo able to hold out for more than a year, and that then she will be forced to capitulate. There are enough men in the Central Empires to fill the gaps in the army, but their number is strjctly limited. The people, starving and deprived of all necessaries of life, are already beginning to clamour with great insistence for bread and peace. All illustrated postcards .and flags sold for the New Year bore the inscription : ' Luck and peace in 1916.' "It is also significant that the populace in Dresden are frankly tired of the war and disgusted with the Prussians, who, in their opinion, are responsible for it, and are quite openly expressing their indignation with Prussian rule."